Dreamstime TNS Seasonal influenza the flu sickens and kills many Americans in a good year and this is already a bad one According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2010 flu has annually caused between 92 million and 356 million illnesses between 140 000 and 710 000 hospitalizations and between 12 000 and 56 000 deaths In the 2017-18 season which began in November and wont end until March hospital emergency rooms are overflowing deaths are running ahead of recent years and pharmacies are low on the anti-flu drug Tamiflu and intravenous solutions needed to keep patients hydrated Vaccination ought to be the key to prevention According to estimates from the CDC in six influenza seasons starting in 2005-06 vaccination prevented 1359 million cases That looks impressive but our current vaccines are barely adequate and the nations drug regulators and science-funding agencies arent doing enough about it Because flu viruses mutate frequently vaccines are reformulated each year to target the virus strains predicted to prevail during the coming fall and winter How well the flu shot works depends on how accurate the prediction is Since the 2004-05 season the flu vaccines effectiveness has varied from 10 percent to 60 percent This year the vaccine is an especially poor match in part because whats going around is predominantly a virulent strain called H3N2 Although that strain is targeted by this seasons flu shot most of the vaccine is prepared from fertilized chicken eggs a method known to reduce its effectiveness against certain strains particularly H3N2 Vaccines work by exposing us to non-infectious components of a virus the viral antigens that elicit an immune response Regulators could encourage manufacturers to stop using chicken eggs and instead prepare vaccines in cultured cells cells that are removed from animals and grown in controlled conditions This method would produce vaccines with greater fidelity to the targeted flu strains We also need more research on adjuvants chemicals mixed with the viral antigens to further boost our immune response But most of all we need to accelerate research on the holy grail of flu prevention a universal vaccine that would target a part or parts of the virus that remain unchanged among different strains even during the viruss rapid mutations A universal vaccine has the potential to provide us with permanent protection from all strains of flu Several different approaches to a universal vaccine are being pursued and the preliminary research is promising Nevertheless there is surprisingly meager federal research funding in this area A recent New York Times article by Michael T Osterholm director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and writer Mark Olshaker tracked the governments investment in flu vaccine research The National Institutes of Health has publicly declared developing a universal vaccine a priority but it has only about 32 million this year specifically for such research Another federal agency the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is spending 43 million on a single pro-ject in pursuit of game-changing influenza vaccines These are minimal efforts when matched against the 1 billion spent annually on developing an HIV vaccine and the many billions that have been spent on vaccines for the Zika and Ebola viruses Within the vaccinated population a vaccines effectiveness varies widely because it is affected by the general health and age of the recipient Although people 65 and older make up only 15 percent of the US population on average they account for about 60 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths attributed to seasonal flu Seniors respond less well to vaccines than younger people because as we age our immune system functions less well Scientists at the National Institutes of Health after reviewing 31 vaccine response studies comparing groups of different ages called for more potent formulations for the elderly But exactly how strong the shot should be and whether additional injections would boost immunity requires more study There is a flu vaccine for people over 65 that contains four times as much antigen as regular flu shots and one that contains an adjuvant but they have improved the shots effectiveness only slightly An increase in research funding on adjuvants more effective dosing regimens and better production methods are simple changes that would better prepare us to face flu outbreaks Increasing the funding for developing a universal vaccine is more challenging but it promises much greater results The fraught flu season of 2017-18 is a sign we need to conquer the disease once and for all Henry I Miller a physician molecular biologist and former flu virus researcher is a fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution He was the founding director of the Food and Drug Administrations Office of Biotechnology He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times